PRESS RELEASE

New England Patriots and UnitedHealthcare Build a Playground for Bridge Boston Charter School

September 26, 2017

Today more than 200 Bostonians and UnitedHealthcare employees joined the New England Patriots and KaBOOM! to build a new playground at the Bridge Boston Charter School. The new play space, which was designed by the school's students and staff, will give the more than 250 kids a place to engage in safe and healthy activities (Photo: UnitedHealthcare).

  • Hundreds of volunteers, including Patriots players, built a 2,400-square-foot playground in six hours

Today more than 200 Bostonians and UnitedHealthcare employees joined the New England Patriots and KaBOOM! to build a new playground at the Bridge Boston Charter School.

The new play space will give the more than 250 students a place to engage in safe and healthy activities. Earlier in the summer, Bridge Boston students and staff helped design the new 2,400-square-foot playground during a special “design day” event, incorporating new elements such as a slither slide, cliff hanger and timber trail bridge.

“We were excited to team with UnitedHealthcare to turn this dream of a new playground into a reality for the Bridge Boston Charter School,” said Josh Kraft, president, New England Patriots Foundation. “We know the value of physical activity and exercise, particularly for children, and that this new space will give students a place to play for years to come.”

The Bridge Boston Charter School, designed to serve as a school and community hub for Bridge Boston families, opened its new campus in August.

“The new playground affirms our commitment to nurture the whole child at Bridge Boston Charter School,” said Yully Cha, executive director, Bridge Boston Charter School. “From design day to build day, the excitement around this project is energizing for our growing school and community family.”

“UnitedHealthcare is grateful for the opportunity to help build a playground that will give children at the Bridge Boston Charter School a place to play and exercise outdoors with their friends and families, while creating healthy habits that will last a lifetime,” said Stephen Farrell, CEO, UnitedHealthcare of New England.

Volunteers worked with KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit organization that helps bring balanced and active play into children’s daily lives. The Boston playground is the 2,974th KaBOOM!-organized build since 1996, the 24th created by KaBOOM! and UnitedHealthcare and the 8th built with the Patriots.

This playground build is part of UnitedHealthcare’s “Do Good. Live Well.” program, an employee-volunteer initiative dedicated to decreasing hunger and obesity, inspiring service and encouraging volunteerism.

For more information about the benefits of volunteering and to find opportunities to volunteer alongside UnitedHealthcare in your community, visit DoGoodLiveWell.org. Follow @DoGoodLiveWell on Twitter or "like" Do Good. Live Well. on Facebook.

UnitedHealthcare serves nearly 500,000 people in Massachusetts with a network of 115 hospitals and about 50,000 physicians and other care providers statewide.

About the Bridge Boston Charter School   

Founded in 2011, Bridge Boston Charter School is a tuition-free, public charter school which aims to impact the education, health and social-emotional wellbeing of children in some of Boston’s most underserved neighborhoods. The school currently serves 272 students in pre-K through 5th grade, with plans to grow by a grade annually to serve a total of 335 pre-K through 8th graders. Bridge Boston believes that the most effective way to lift children out of poverty is by equipping them with an excellent education. As such, the school offers a longer day from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and school year from August – June, and provides academic rigor, a commitment to nurturing the whole child and a breadth of full-service programming to remove obstacles to learning.

About KaBOOM!

KaBOOM! is the national non-profit dedicated to giving all kids – particularly those growing up in poverty in America – the childhood they deserve filled with balanced and active play, so they can thrive. Since 1996, KaBOOM! has collaborated with partners to build, open, or improve more than 16,700 playgrounds, engaged more than one million volunteers, and served 8.5 million kids. KaBOOM! creates great places to play, inspires communities to promote and support play, and works to drive the national discussion about the importance of play in fostering healthy and productive lives. To learn why #playmatters and why cities are embracing #playability: visit kaboom.org or join the conversation at twitter.com/kaboom or facebook.com/kaboom.

About UnitedHealthcare

UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people nationwide live healthier lives by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. The company offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, military service members, retirees and their families, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with 1 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,000 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @UHC on Twitter.


NE Patriots players and students

New England Patriots players (L-R) Deatrich Wise, David Harris, Adam Butler and Geneo Grissom huddle with students from Bridge Boston Charter School following today's volunteer project where the athletes worked with volunteers from UnitedHealthcare and nonprofit KaBOOM! to build a playground at Bridge Boston Charter School (Photo: UnitedHealthcare).